Eurozone Inflation Hits 2.9%, Greece Sees Slowdown

Inflation in Greece slowed down to 2.7% in July from a year earlier, according to Eurostat, the European Union's statistics agency. This marks a decrease from June's rate of 3.9%. The eurozone as a whole saw an annual inflation rate of 2.9%, up from 2.8% in June.

The largest contributor to the eurozone's inflation was services prices, which added 1.55 percentage points to the annual rate. Energy costs also played a significant role, contributing 0.94 percentage points. Non-energy industrial goods and food, alcohol, and tobacco each contributed 0.23 percentage points.

Inflation varied widely across the bloc, with Sweden recording the lowest annual rate of 0.3%, followed by the Czech Republic at 1.3% and Denmark and Hungary, both at 1.6%. On the other hand, Romania posted the highest annual rate of 8.2%, ahead of Lithuania at 5.4% and Cyprus and Bulgaria, both at 4.4%.